The present invention relates to outboard marine drives, and more particularly to a new midsection housing and cowl assembly for enclosing the midsection housing of an outboard marine drive.
An outboard marine drive generally includes an upper engine portion and a lower gear case. Typically, the two portions are joined by a driveshaft housing which includes a driveshaft, an exhaust passage, supply and return cooling water passages, and in some engine configurations, an integral oil sump. Other configurations requiring an oil sump have a separate reservoir mounted on the outboard drive.
There are several drawbacks to this configuration including producing excessive noise from the exhaust system, exposing the operator of the outboard drive to the hot oil sump cavity, allowing the hot oil sump cavity to be susceptible to contact with the cool water where the marine drive operates. Such exposure prevents maintaining consistent oil temperature and, in the case of operating in salt water, causes the water to evaporate leaving an unsightly salt residue which builds up and is difficult to remove. Further, an exposed die-cast driveshaft housing requires special sanding and preparation to produce a customer acceptable finish.